The unofficial, unauthorized view of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The Ancestry Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these two websites and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: DPS Tour

We were treated to a tour of Document Preservation Services (DPS) after Laryn Brown’s presentation. We were told this was the only place we could use our cameras, so of course I forgot and left my good camera behind. Fortunately, I still had my glasses and umbrella (wink, wink).

Digital Preservation Services (DPS) occupies a half floor in one of the two buildings at Ancestry.com. Workers were sandwiched into small cubicles with no sound barriers. It was like a hive of activity (right).

Microfilm scanning is only done at the DPS facility in Provo, Utah. Any film that needs to be scanned is shipped here. Laryn Brown told us that they keep a high speed film scanner busy around the clock (left).

Images whirl by on the operator’s computer screen (right). While the scanner is capable of higher speeds, Ancestry.com limits the speed so the operator can perform a quick quality check on every image. Others perform more extensive checks (below).

Ancestry.com uses a planetary camera to digitize documents to fragile to run through a sheet-fed scanner. An operator places the documents on a flat surface underneath the scanner (left). The camera is mounted straight above the documents. The operator takes a picture, which is transferred directly into the computer (below).

Ancestry.com uses a Kirtas book scanner for high speed scanning of books. Two cameras are employed to photograph the left and right pages simultaneously (below). The scanner automatically turns pages (right).

While we were there, Ancestry.com proudly showed off some valuable records they saved from destruction. It hurt to see they were cutting off the spines so the pages could be fed through a sheet scanner. But it was good to realize that as a result, lots of people could get access. After we left, they asked us not to mention the records. They weren’t supposed to show us because the record set hasn’t been announced.

Ancestry.com employee explains stuff about some sort of project development board. My memory fails me, but I think this room was used to track projects during imaging and keying? Maybe? (Left)

Another employee explains another project board, the purpose of which has again eluded me (above).

I’m guessing that the board shows projects that are nearing publication. Each project has a flag and a photograph associated with it (above).

Somehow I didn’t get a picture of the sheet-fed scanner Ancestry.com was using to scan the records that we weren’t supposed to see. The scanner is able to scan both sides of a page at once. It is the same scanner they take out to do free scanning for people. (More on that later.)

That’s it for our tour. Next week I’ll give you a report on the technology presentation by Mike Wolfgramm and Jonathan Young.

It is great to get an inside peek at all of the archival activity at Ancestry.com! Thank you for posting this. I was especially happy to see mention of the microfilm scanning process, employing nextScan's Eclipse scanner. We truly did design this machine with such applications in mind - it is designed to run 24/7 with speeds up to 590 pages per minute. Thanks Again!

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The Ancestry Insider is consistently a top ten and readers’ choice award winner. He has been an insider at both the two big genealogy organizations, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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The Ancestry Insider was a readers’ choice for the top four genealogy news and resources blogs, part of Family Tree Magazine’s “40 Best Genealogy Blogs” for 2010. He reports on the two big genealogy organizations, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. He was named a “Most Popular Genealogy Blogs” by ProGenealogists, and has received Family Tree Magazine’s “101 Best Web Sites” award every year since 2008. A genealogical technologist, the Insider has a post-graduate technology degree and holds a dozen technology patents in the United States and abroad. He has done genealogy since 1972 and has worked in the computer industry since 1978. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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